Moral science has two halves. There are the implications of thinking straight about fact and value (ideal theory) and there are the implications of not thinking straight. Ideal theory is the foundation, error theory the daily battle.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Crescent controversy on Fox News television and Fox News front page!

Check out the Fox News front page today, where "Crescent Outrage" alternates top billing with "Six-Legged Soldiers!" Finally, more than a handful of Americans will at least know that there is a controversy over the Flight 93 memorial.

They won't get much more than that from Fox's text report, which is pretty bare. There is no mention of the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent, no mention of the 44 inscribed translucent blocks on the flight path, no mention of the Islamic sundial, and no fact checking (the modern media disease). Still, this is big.

The text report DOES show the side-by-side comparison of the Crescent of Embrace and the Islamic crescent and star insignia. It also reports Tom Burnett's condemnation of the crescent design as an insult to his murdered son, and it mentions our petition.

This is powerful stuff. Not only do they show the clear likeness between the original design and an Islamic crescent and star flag, but the image they show of the redesign shows pretty clearly how the giant crescent remains intact in the redesign:

From the crescent and star likeness, they cut to Tom Burnett, asking what people would think if a memorial were laid out in the shape of a swastika. If viewers hadn't just seen the crescent and star likeness, that statement could be made to sound crazy, but Fox does right by Tom, giving viewers the information they need to see the reasonableness of the comparison. Many thanks to Fox for getting this right.

Fox has a lot more information at their disposal. They had a television crew at the Somerset County Courthouse yesterday where Colonel Harry Beam laid out a precise and devastating exposé of Islamic and terrorist memorializing design features, and they were sent extensive fact checking materials. None of this gets into their present reporting, but if they use it for an investigative feature, they can knock the crescent memorial out for good.

UPDATE II: Avid Editor found another completely different Fox News segment on Red Lasso. This one is even better, mentioning the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent!

The Families of Flight 93 launched a preemptive strike Friday against memorial design opponents who plan to present petitions today at a joint meeting of the Flight 93 Memorial Task Force and the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission.Relatives of four people who were on Flight 93 held a press conference in Pittsburgh to say they are fed up with the controversy surrounding the design. Tom and Beverly Burnett, parents of Tom Burnett Jr., have opposed the design since it was selected in 2005, because they believe it includes Islamic symbols that pay tribute to the terrorists. Their cause has been taken up by Internet bloggers.Patrick White, vice president of the Families of Flight 93, said the Burnetts are the only members who have expressed opposition to the design. He is a cousin of Louis “Joey” Nacke.===>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08124/878937-100.stm?cmpid=latest.xmlSome Flight 93 families still see memorial conspiracySaturday, May 03, 2008By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteSOMERSET, Pa. -- Opponents of the proposed United Airlines Flight 93 memorial today presented a petition with more than 5,000 signatures of people who believe the design contains Islamic symbols - such as a crescent - and should be scrapped.

"It is truly unfortunate that I must come a third time to warn that you are about to make a terrible mistake in moving the chosen Flight 93 memorial design to construction," Bill Steiner, of Mt. Pleasant, told a meeting of the advisory commission for the memorial at the Somerset County Courthouse.Mr. Steiner said he was speaking on behalf of Tom Burnett Sr., whose son died when the plane was hijacked by terrorists and crashed in a field in Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001.===>International Herald Tribunehttp://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/04/america/shrine.phpDesign of a memorial to Flight 93 fuels tension between families

By Sean D. Hamill Published: May 4, 2008

SOMERSET, Pennsylavia: Sandra Felt has known for nearly three years about complaints that the design of the proposed Flight 93 National Memorial allegedly contains Islamic symbols, but she never gave them any credence.

"I don't even think about it," said Felt, whose husband, Edward, died on Sept. 11, 2001, when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near here as passengers struggled with Islamic terrorists for control of the plane, believed to be headed to a target in Washington.

But Saturday, after listening to five people tell members of the Flight 93 Memorial Task Force and the Flight 93 Advisory Committee, that the design should be scrapped because of the alleged Islamic symbols, Felt had had it.===>[Tallahassee Thomasville Valdosta]http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/18560654.htmlFlight 93 Memorial ControversyPosted: 11:26 AM May 4, 2008Reporter: CBSEmail Address: news@wctv.tvInside the Somerset County Courthouse, a few miles from where Flight 93's heroes gave their last full measure of devotion, the Flight 93 National Memorial Committee heard from those who see the design for a lasting physical tribute to the heroes as a place dedicated to their killers.Lt. Col Harry Beam says, "There's Islamic symbolism in the design. The current design should be completely scrapped."Lt. Col Harry Beam, one of the many in the courtroom, see the design with its semicircle of red trees as an Islamic crescent. Its tower of voices and a mosque-like minaret and its orientation toward the east as a tribute to the four Muslim terrorists.Bill Steiner says, "Please don't sanction a fully-functioning mosque as the headstone on their graves."But, in this public hearing on the design, were some of the those who lost loved ones, on that day that changed our world. They told the committee if you look hard enough you can find any symbol in anything.Christine Fraser, who lost a sibling on Flight 93, says, " It's a circle.. It really does hurt.. It's so hard not to take this personally. Its just so "out there"... I just don't get it.."Also attending- Sandra Felt. Her husband, Edward Felt, fought back on Flight 93. She was stunned by what she heard.Felt says, "I was not prepared for the level of hate being spewed. Absolutely unnecessary.. Absolutely unnecessary, and very hurtful. It generates hate and division, where there should be none." Whatever the final design the Flight 93 memorial turns out to be.. Mrs Felt and Mrs Frazer say the most important thing people is, when they come here, is not what the memorial looks like.. but what was sacrificed, and what happened in Somerset County.. Sept 11 2001.===>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/us/05memorial.htmlCritics See Symbols of Islam in Flight 93 Memorial DesignSean Hammill story===>Flight 93 families want memorial controversy to endDaily Record 2008-05-03, 09:07 GMThttp://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080503/UPDATES01/805030368PITTSBURGH -- Several family members of the 40 passengers and crew who died on hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 say they're fed up with controversies surrounding the design of a national memorial.===>Family of Flight 93 victims fed up over memorial controversyWZZM 13 Grand Rapids 2008-05-04, 12:20 GMThttp://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=91662Several family members of the 40 passengers and crew who died on hijacked United Airlines flight 93 say they're fed up with===>Flight 93 families speak out for memorialThe Tribune-Democrat 2008-05-03, 04:58 GMThttp://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_123234109.htmlSOMERSET — Frustrated by persistent accusations that the design of the Flight 93 National Memorial is a veiled tribute to Islamic terrorists, key family members are fighting back.===>Flight 93 design change soughtThe Tribune-Democrat 2008-05-04, 04:28 GMThttp://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_124232343.htmlSOMERSET — The petite, typically soft-spoken wife of a passenger killed aboard Flight 93 lashed out Saturday at protesters criticizing perceived Islamic symbolism in the design of a memorial for the hijacked plane.===>Flight 93 Families Want Memorial To Move ForwardKDKA Pittsburgh 2008-05-03, 01:41 GMThttp://kdka.com/local/Flight.93.memorial.2.714594.htmlSeveral family members of the 40 passengers and crew who died on hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 in 2001 say they are fed up with controversies surrounding the design of a national memorial. The families of four victims held a news conference in Pittsburgh.

but what was sacrificed, and what happened in Somerset County.. Sept 11 2001. "

Really?

If it really didn't matter what the memorial looked like, why stand in the way?

The family members that stand by Murdoch's design need to understand that it is not their uninformed vote that we are upset about. No one is upset with them for thier initial vote. They weren't expected to know or understand or recognize the symbolism utilized by this professional architect. That these Flt. 93 families uniformly take our objections personally wreaks of emotional manipulation.

About Me

Here is a short bio I sent to press people covering the Flight 93 memorial debacle. My training is as an economist. I was in the PhD program in economics at Stanford until my research led me more towards moral theory and constitutional law, at which point I dropped the program and started working on my own. I was writing a book on republicanism (the system of liberty under law) for World Ahead Publishing when I discovered that the Flight 93 memorial was going to be a terrorist memorial mosque. World Ahead agreed to first publish my book about this rehijacking of Flight 93 (Crescent of Betrayal, temporarily available for free download at CrescentOfBetrayal.com). This is not my first venture into journalism. Over the years I have been a writer, opinions editor, and advisor for Stanford’s conservative campus newspaper The Stanford Review, and am currently on the Review’s board of directors.